things that are perfect sow terror in me

Though a favor to the feet, to the shoes
the sandals are bare skeletons.

An olive tree lives two thousand years
but tends to remember nothing.

Things that are perfect sow terror in me.
I don’t like them.

My handwriting’s skewed, my gait more so,
doing my best.


[Kirmen Uribe {1970- }, 'Things That Are Perfect', from Meanwhile Take My Hand, translated from the Basque by Elizabeth Macklin]